Effective prevention of organic damage for hypertensive patients necessitates following a medical regimen over an extended period of time. Since essential hypertension is largely asymptomatic in its early stages, this amounts to a long-term behavioral modification in which habits must be developed and expenses born in the absence of either intrinsic gratification or immediate observable negative consequences linked to discontinuation of the activity. Under such circumstances, no single approach to education and motivation is likely to be an adequate answer to achieving high rates of patient compliance. The most effective approach will therefore almost certainly involve a multi-faceted combination of component techniques. As the first phase of our research, we propose to investigate the effectiveness of various component aspects in the instruction of hypertensive patients. Component factors for testing are selected from the hypertensive patient education phases of Wilber and Barrow's work, from the behavioral modification research of Leventhal, Janis, and others, from previous patient compliance research by Powers and Mazzulo. That combination of components which seems to have the highest cost-to-benefit ratio will then be subjected to more extensive testing, including teaching such techniques to office nurses of private physicians and to other health personnel, and field testing the effectiveness of these personnel in applying the techniques in their everyday practice. As the research progresses, the setting and scope will shift from a small hypertensive clinical research facility, to a hospital-based referral clinic, to all patients in a Rochester area. Randomized comparison groups will be used throughout the research in accord with the small sample field experimental approach to patient care research pioneered by Wooldridge and associates at Yale. The proposed research is inter-disciplinary in theoretical scope, methodological techniques, and investigative personnel.